Things that surprise the heck out of you

Frank McKenna is out, eh? Manley already decided no? Tobin debating whether he even wants the job?

Wow - the Star is right. Being the Liberal leader isn't the prize it used to be. I feel like I should throw my hat in the ring. When this would be your competition . . .

Among the possible contenders are former ministers Stephane Dion, Martin
Cauchon, Denis Coderre, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Ken Dryden, Jane Stewart and Joe
Volpe, former Tories-turned-ministers Scott Brison and Belinda Stronach, former
Ontario premier Bob Rae and acclaimed Harvard academic Michael Ignatieff,
elected for the first time last week.

. . . why not give it a shot?

I mean, among others you've got two Tory defectors, an old NDP premier, an egghead who supports the war in Iraq, an ex-hockey goalie and two boondoggle-prone ministers.

Quite an impressive lineup, doncha' think?

All kidding aside . . . this leadership race is going to be incredibly interesting - not that it wasn't going to be before, but for different reasons. I was intrigued before because it was going to be fun to watch 'the Board' dismantle those in opposition to a McKenna leadership bid - but with no real front-runner anymore, this could turn into an honest-to-God debate of ideas. Which would be a nice change for the Liberals, who for the last little while have operated their party without any sort of vision for where Canada should be headed.

Short of examining the morning's polling numbers, that is.

Let the games begin!

Thank the Heavens

A mining accident with a happy ending - good job to the emergency crews, and to the miners for keeping their heads.

72 men stuck in the mine, 72 men get out safe. Good work to all.

Draft Tim Horton's

It's the right thing to do. If Canadian soldiers want a double-double in the morning before heading out on patrol in Kandahar, it's the least we (and Tim's) can do.

Email Tim's here. Copy and paste the letter below if you want - but make sure you send an email, and do it today. The boys in Afghanistan deserve any comfort we can give them while they're 10,000 kms away from home doing a job most of us wouldn't and couldn't do.

To Whom it May Concern,

I read in the Ottawa Citizen today (January 28th) that the Canadian Forces have approached Tim Horton's with the hope of setting up a Tim Horton's franchise at the Kandahar Air Field base. It was reported that Tim Horton's responded that a franchise in Kandahar "is not part of our business model."

As a regular Tim Horton's customer, I feel that it is important for you reconsider your current position. Canadian soldiers are not fighting for the safety of Afghan citizens because it is a 'good business move'; they are doing it because they believe that people throughout the world have the right to live free from tyranny and oppression. Just as it is Canada's duty to provide support in the war against terror in Afghanistan, I believe that it is Tim Horton's duty to provide the support that the CF are requesting.

Your company has become a Canadian icon because it stands up for values that all Canadians believe in: the Timbits Minor Sports Program, the "Smile Cookie" program and the "Earn a bike" program are just a few of the things that Tim Horton's does to further its image as a company that represents its customers values. Opening a franchise in order to provide some measure of comfort to soldiers who are expressing Canadian values overseas is the right thing to do.

Thank-you for taking the time to consider this request; I know that your company will take the appropriate steps to make this possibility a reality.

Yours,

Incredible

Sorry - I had to - best blonde joke EVER.

Happy New Year . . Again

Seolnal is here - Lunar New Year for those not in the Land of the Morning Calm (c) - and after finding a bunch of quasy-intersting articles to blog about before hanging it up for the holiday weekend, I said screw it. I've got this blog, and it's funny, and you should check it out if you want a good laugh.

Cabbies are awesome, and this one knows how to write.

On a side-note, I keep reading good things about how Harper's first few days have been - it's starting to freak me out. The honeymoon period sure is nice, eh? Hope it lasts for a little while.
Even Bush got a hundred days.

Oh, and these two kids should have the book thrown at them. No excuse for this sort of thing, no matter how great their parents think they are.

All right, I'm out. Bugok Hawaii for the weekend - and no, it's not what you're thinking. Just a hot spring to chill at - not an island to lounge on. Beggars can't be choosers though, right?

Al Gore: still out of touch with reality

Note to Al Gore:

There are rules in place that force Canadian political parties to solicit donations from many smaller sources, as opposed to a huge stack of cash from big corporations. Your statement about 'big-oil' bank-rolling the Conservatives is actually pretty ridiculous to those of us who have a clue.

In reality, the Tories' recent election campaign was bankrolled by many, many individual Canadians. If you're looking for the corporate whores, that's the Liberal party. That's why they're so deep in the red these days; with no big corporate donations, the well has dried up.

Thanks for coming out Al - time to head back to obscurity. Michael Moore is looking for someone to yelp incoherently with.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice . . .

You've got to be kidding me. After running the Big Red Machine directly into the ground, it appears "the Board" that oversaw the Martin debacle is now poised to force a quick leadership convention so that they can get their guy Frank McKenna elected. Ignoring what appears to be sage advice from people like David Emerson and Denis Coderre to slow down and do it right, the Liberals look set to try the annointed-by-the-party-leadership thing one more time.

I have to ask - is there no one in the upper echelons of the Liberal Party who isn't beholden to David Herle and the crew? Does anyone study history? Recent history, perhaps? Like the last 18 months history?

Mr. McKenna has already done enough to make me laugh today without being involved with this - his resignation letter to PM-Elect Harper had one particularly funny statement:

While I would have no difficulty working with you or your government, it would be virtually impossible to establish the appearance of total confidence and support in a jurisdiction where political ambassadorial appointees traditionally resign immediately after an election.
Consequently, it is in the best interest of our nation that I submit to you my resignation as Canada's ambassador to the United States.

Sure, Mr. McKenna. It's in the best interests of our nation that you resign; good to see you thinking of everyone else.

I have to be honest, I figured he'd at least wait until he was asked for the letter; who knew Mr. McKenna was so worried about the threat of other Liberals to his leadership bid that he had to get his foot as far out the door as he could on the first day of the race.

If you thought this would end when the election was over, you don't know me very well.

Paul Martin - coulda, whoulda, shoulda

An interesting piece in the Toronto Star yesterday (note to self: reading too much Toronto Star lately) brought to my attention by Siscoe.ca reporter-in-the-field Mike Douglas, currently on assignment in Paris.

An interesting look at why M. Martin failed when so many expected him to be a savior of sorts for Canada. There was a time (during the awful Chretien regime) where I was a firm supporter of M. Martin - he was basically a Tory in Red clothes, and I had hoped that his fiscal prudence would lead to a smaller government when he took office.

The problem as I see it (and Susan Delacourt does an excellent job of explaining it in the linked article) is that he wanted to be PM for the sake of power - Ms. Delacourt calls it fame, but I don't see a difference in this case. There was never an over-arching vision of where the Martin team wanted to take Canada; every day was a flap in the wind, based on whatever poll had come out that morning. I suppose populism has its benefits, but Ms. Delacourt points out very well the heights to which M. Martin's ridiculousness took us.

So the article serves as a timely obituary for the man-who-would-be-PM as his time draws to a close. He had a great deal of promise, but only because that was the image presented by his handlers, without the scrutiny that comes with being in the top job - it turns out there just wasn't much under the surface.

M. Martin almost made you wish for the days of M. Chretien . . . almost.

Looks great, doesn't it

Take a look at the 'Premier ministre' entry from this info box at lemonde.fr:


Looks good, doesn't it?

Even if they are jumping the gun just a little bit; I'm pretty sure his official title at present is Prime Minister Elect (or designate). He still has to be sworn in.

The article itself was pretty interesting, although as usual my french skills are hampering me; good practice, nonetheless - if you're up for giving it a try, the article is here.

Always interesting to find out what they're saying about us in other parts of the world, eh?

After the hangover clears . . .

. . . the real work begins.

I am a Conservative. I have never tried to hide this fact; even when I helped Liberal friends in university, it was always with the knowledge amongst myself and people who knew me that I was, am, and will probably always be a Conservative. I'm a big fan of small government, intelligent spending and allowing the people of a country to dictate the terms of their own lives. I don't like statism, and have never been a fan of the government telling me what I should or shouldn't do when the outcome affected me and only me.

I'm also a social moderate, but for the same reasons as why I am a fiscal Conservative. The federal government's main job, as near as I can see it, is to provide the people of Canada with a level playing field. When someone commits an offence to the detriment of the social good, teh federal government is supposed to punish them. When corporations do business without regard to safety or environmental issues, the federal government is supposed to make them fix the problem they created. Outside of keeping the field level, it is my opinion that they should pretty much stay out of my business if I'm not harming anyone else.

That means giving gays the same rights as straights (because who you love affects me not one wit); it means decriminalizing and eventually legalizing marijuana because it is no more harmful than liquor and smokes (and neither of those is illegal); it means a pro-choice viewpoint in the abortion debate because what a woman does with her body is her choice.

I say all this because when I tell people I'm a Conservative supporter, they look at me like I want to revert back to 1950; as if there's a belief in every Conservative's body that the 'good 'ol days of Deif' are the goal; that we want women back in the kitchen, missiles filling the silos, and a big Red Menace to scare the hell out of the population with (that menace now believing in Allah, for the purposes of their contrived belief).

The truth is, though, that candidates like that don't get elected in droves, and there's a few in every party anyway.

The Conservative minority will be good for Canada; it will give us a chance to try out a Tory government, and it will also let us see that there is another way. The Liberals are not the be-all end-all of Canadian governance. If the new government manages to chart the moderate path that 36.2% of Canadians asked them to take, then maybe they will change the minds of some of the 63.8% who wanted to make sure they couldn't get radical.

If Prime Minister Harper does what the entire centre-right movement hopes he will do, then this minority is a stepping stone to a majority government a few years from now.

Finally . . .

A minority, yes. But government nonetheless.

Update: And Congratulations to my home riding of Ottawa-Orleans for finally - FINALLY - electing a Tory to the federal legislature. I know a lot of the people out there who were working on Mr. Galipeau's campaign, and they all deserved this win, after several very strong efforts. Going home never sounded like such a great idea as it does now!

Do it

The Toronto Star printed this?

An excellent article in the Star today - I don't say that often, but this one was an intriguing take on the two men who will exchange jobs on Monday. There's less Harper-is-scary than usual (which is nice), and a more balanced look at the two men who wish to be Prime Minister.

My comment after reading it all - I think a 145-seat Conservative minority will be the outcome, and I think that will be good for Canada if Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Liberal-leader-to-be-named-later want to make it happen. Stephen Harper is not a scary man, and I think Canadians will get the Prime Minister who was presented to them during this election campaign. The Tories can't afford (politically) to do anything very severe given the likelihood of another election in the next two years, and so you'll see a very centre-right vision of the country with tax breaks, debt reduction and a continued budget surplus. Socially, we'll get a free vote on SSM, which I think will probably end with the status quo; Canada has progressed, and MP's will vote in favour of retaining the rights that homosexuals deserve.

Contrary to what M. Martin says in his clumsy attempts to retain power, Mr. Harper will not criminalize abortion, will not erode women's rights, will not send troops to Iraq, will not cede Canadian sovereignty to the USA and will not run a deficit. Canada will be in a better position two years from now, and if and when Mr. Harper seeks a new mandate from the Canadian people, he will be given it; Canadians will see that a Tory government can do as much and more than a Liberal one.

Wow, such optimism from me - where's that coming from?!? Must be Saturday.

More Buzz-killing by the CAW

These are the reasons Buzz Hargrove wants you to vote Bloc Quebecois (the link is in French, so my attempt at a bullet-point translation is below):

1. Fix the Fiscal Imbalance for Quebec
2. Reform Employment Insurance
3. Better protect older workers
4. Demand a new Aeronautics policy
5. Propose an anti-scab law
6. Create new federal protection for women on maternity leave (my French is weak, that could be a slightly garbled translation)
7. Create a law that makes employees the first creditors paid in the event of their employer going bankrupt
8. Find the sponsorship money and bring the perpetrators of the scandal to justice
9. Allow employees the right to present to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal
10. Put in place measures for equitable globalization

Ahh, wait a minute, they missed one.

11. Help advance the cause of Quebec separation, so that the cause of a worker's socialist utopia can be created.

Hmm. Funny. I wonder how they managed to leave that one out?

You have to wonder how Paul Martin and the Liberals can allow a man to campaign on their behalf in English Canada, knowing that his labour union is not only not supporting him in Quebec, but is in fact supporting the Separatists!

The Liberal brain-trust: asleep at the wheel. I feel bad for Grit supporters these days - how do you support a party that seems to want to uphold certain ideals, but keeps abandoning principles simply to hold onto power?

Bits and pieces before I go to work

Hydrogen, the wave of the future - I suppose it's easy because it's Iceland, but you have to admire the little country's desire to go oil-free. Abandoning gasoline is never going to be easy, but if it's going to happen, a tiny little country isolated from the world is probably the best place to use as a research facility.

Liberals giving up, grabbing their ball, going home - Quebec Liberal candidate calls it quits, tells his supporters to vote Tory. I'm surprised it took this long. Although according to Paul Wells, the Grits have said he's back on the campaign trail, telling people to vote Liberal. The Liberal brain-trust lowers the hammer, I suppose.

This has been a long campaign. I'm starting to tire of election news. Methinks I'm not alone. Looking forward to Monday, so that it's all finished. Liberal scandals, while interest for a while, start to bore after a time, and leave me feeling apathetic about the whole democracy thing. It's almost like you get desensitized to it; ooh, the Liberals spent X amount of dollars on xxx pork barrelling? Surprise, surprise.

I pray that Canadians boot the bums back to the wilderness for a while.

Buzz Hargrove, standing up for . . . what?

I thought when Mr. Hargrove abandoned his principles and threw his support behind M. Martin's corrupt Liberals, it was because he was angling for a patronage appointment of some sort - a Senate seat perhaps.

Turns out I was wrong - he's just got zero principles outside of vindictiveness.

Buzz Hargrove stirred controversy Wednesday by urging people to stop Tory Leader Stephen Harper "any way they can" - even if that means supporting the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/CanadaVotes/2006/01/18/1399954-cp.html

Thanks Buzz - you can feel free to jam your foot (or whatever else you find) in your mouth anytime you'd like, but we'd appreciate it if, in the future, you'd keep it there.

The list goes on and on . . .

Raymond Bonin, Ken Boshcoff, John Cannis, Gary Carr, Brenda Chamberlain, Joe Comuzzi, Rodger Cuzner, Roger Gallaway, Charles Hubbard, Jim Karygiannis, Wajid Khan, Walt Lastewka, Derek Lee, Judi Longfield, Lawrence MacAulay, Gurbax Malhi, John Maloney, Bill Matthews, John McKay, Dan McTeague, Massimo Pacetti, Andy Savoy, Francis Scarpaleggia, Raymond Simard, Scott Simms, Paul Steckle, Paul Szabo, Alan Tonks, Rose-Marie Ur, Tom Wappel, Bryon Wilfert, Paul Zed.

These are the Liberal MP's that voted against bill C-38, an Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes (courtesy of howdtheyvote.com).

I'm only pointing this out after reading this article (passed along by Chrissy - I'm training her up good!), which seems to indicate that people are over-reacting to the possibility of a Conservative government and the effect on SSM. It appears Liberal (Harper-will-eat-your-marriage-license) ads are working, to a small extent.

I'll ignore the obvious partisan drivel that spewed forth from Mr. Smitherman, and speak directly to the point; the Conservatives have not at any point during this campaign said that they will simply reverse bill C-38 if elected. Not once. Ever. They promised a free vote on the issue, which is how a democracy is supposed to work (M. Martin, are you taking notes?). Even if the Conservatives win on January 23rd (majority or minority), and they wanted to simply reverse the act without a vote (which they don't), the law would not be reversed on the 24th. There's a certain amount of procedure that would need to be worked through first. Even though, in this humble man's view, it likely will never come to pass.

There are members of each party who are against Same-Sex Marriage; it's a divisive debate, that's what happens. Mr. Harper's decision to follow M. Mulroney's lead with the free vote on capital punishment in 1987 is one that should be applauded. M. Martin simply chose to dictate the law that would be passed, and he thwarted opposition within his own party in an autocratic manner. Anyone who supports that sort of governing style is welcome to it . . .

But not in my Canada, thank-you very much.

A Double-tap because Wednesdays are busy

I WISH I was working for the Tories right now! - Nobody really cares, but I'll say it anyway - I most definitely was not contacted by the Conservative Party and asked to contravene any part of the Election Act. I'm just an everyday guy who found a group of other everyday people, and we all happen to share a great disdain for the current government and the corruption it stands for. That's all. We happen to have a snappy name. A few of our members happen to be decent at investigative journalism.

You want to help fix health care? - Follow Fitness Industry Canada's suggestion and vote Conservative. The health care mess doesn't exist just because we don't spend enough money on treatment; we're not doing much of anything on the prevention side. The Tory plan to give families 500$ tax credits for kids under the age of 16 who are in sports is great; the possibility of tax deductibile gym memberships is fantastic. Give people a monetary incentive, and they will be more willing to do just about anything.

Seven's all I got

The scare tactics appear to be failing - 55% of Canadians would welcome a Harper majority? How could they not - anything that takes power away from the corrupt Liberal holders of it now is good for the country. Add in the fact that Mr. Harper will not, in fact, eat your baby, and you've got a pretty good choice for government. Toss the well thought-out platform of policy ideas that are supported by large segments of the population, and you've got a winning formula there.

The desperation is starting to stink the joint out - That may be the reason why M. Martin's speeches are drawing less than stellar crowds these days. There's strategically targeting NDP voters, and then there's strategically begging NDP voters. I'm seeing more of column B and less of column A these days.

You know that if the rats are jumping, it's time to abandon ship - McGuinty Liberals are starting to say a lot more in the way of nice stuff about the Conservative 'juggernaut' (see the next article). I wonder why? Maybe they're freaked out that the bad-mouthing of yesteryear may not be all that helpful in fixing their own fiscal imbalance.

I don't know if I agree with the headline, but it sounds nice nonetheless - An interesting rundown of the last little while in Canadian politics, and how the Tory "juggernaut" (their word, not mine) got to this point. The take-away line of the article: Harper believes that "politics is about policy". If you're a committed Liberal, you're probably confused that it didn't say 'power is about keeping power'. Don't worry - keep watching.

A positive sign on the health front - People aren't smoking in their homes or cars; that can only be good for the collective health of our bodies. Now, if we could just get people to eat a few hundred calories less a day, we'd be rolling.

"Thank God for whatever happened, whatever intervened to stop this train wreck," - Damn straight. To the brain surgeons in Mr. McGuinty's cabinet who thought this 'offender-focused' justice system was a good idea, try spending a little time in the areas that are hardest hit by crime in, ooh, let's say Toronto. Ask people who live there how they feel about the already laughable 'justice' system. And then ask yourself why the only people still voting Liberal as a committed group are the ones who are behind bars.

160GB laptop hard-drive, eh? - There was a time when my family's desktop had 110MB, and we thought that was all we'd need. And now I look at my 40GB HD and think "Why the heck didn't I buy that 120GB external drive when I had the chance?"

Randomness

I'm sitting here, watching the 6th episode of Rome, and I'm thinking that BitTorrent is a glorious thing for those of us who are not able to enjoy the wonderfulness of North American cable television. Jon Stewart, the West Wing and hockey are not as far away as they might have been - they're just tape delayed.

Those who know me know that being in Korea is difficult when the most Conservative-tastic election of the last 15 years is happening on the Federal stage. Most people here are tired of hearing me expound - I'm pretty sure my co-workers have been driven to insanity by my constant ponderings. I suppose it's because if I were home, I'd be volunteering and handing out campaign literature. Here I'm reduced to surfing blogs and reading campaign literature - which is interesting, but not quite the same thing. Again, it feels like everything is on tape delay.

Speaking of home, the thought of moving back to Canada is driving me to distraction again, and I don't think the thought will go away. With 102 days left until my plane takes off, but the possibillity that the number could be considerably smaller if I just, you know, got on a plane tomorrow (I probably wouldn't, but the thought occurs every once and a while), I find myself counting the days and waiting for the end of each, so that my return could be another step closer. This is not how I ever intended to live my life; in fact, it is in direct opposition to how I want to live my life.

And so I've made a promise to myself that I shall never do this again - not move to Korea, of course; that was a decision I can never regret. I will not, however, again live a life where I count the days and look forward to the end; if I'm not enjoying what I'm doing and I'm not finding some aspect of my life fulfilled by it, then I can't do it. What's the point of living if you're not going to enjoy it?

To steal a line from a Tupac Shakur song (I know it seems like a strange source for inspiration, but it works for me):

"Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?"

Truer words were never spoken. Why, indeed?

Seven of the best

Expect more of this in the last week - M. Martin throwing as much money as he can on the electorate in the hopes of buying just a few more votes. It's pretty hard to claim you're the deficit-slashing budget hawk when you're throwing money around like an Enron executive at a strip club.

But what about Stephen Harper . . .the man? - An interesting article about Mr. Harper, the man who will (probably) be Canada's next Prime Minister. The article is fairly critical, but more open to the possibility that Mr. Harper is an ok guy then anything else I've read from the Globe, so you can't cry too hard.

Ready and willing to work with a Tory government - Bourque gets the tip on this one; Joe Commuzi is quite sure a new Conservative governement would not cancel the FedNor program, and he thinks he can work with them on this issue. How refreshing to see a Liberal candidate giving a Tory government a vote of confidence before the election has even occured. Gives a pretty good idea of what Liberals are really thinking these days.

Have you ever listened to Eminem's music? - Normally I stay away from the entertainment gossip crap, but this made me laugh. I've been listening to Eminem's lyrics lately, and I really have to wonder how these two could ever reconcile, given what he has said about his ex-(and now current)wife.

Using the Liberals' words against them - The most pathetic part of it all is that the Grits want the ad pulled because it may 'violate copyright' laws. Never mind that it's true, and that their own members and candidates are upset over the military attack ad. Wanna see?

What a pointlessly divisive debate - Which city is better?! Is the Post looking for filler articles? Having a 'debate' like that is as pointless as posting something from an internet bulletin board. You get a bunch of people who have already made up their mind bickering about ridiculousness for hours on end. I should know . . . I've been there and done that more times than I care to count. Besides . . . Ottawa is the best. End point. Finished.

Didn't see that one coming - I hate the Colts and love the Steelers, so I'm not upset in the least . . . but did anyone predict the outcome of this game?

The last Liberal diehard

Nice company to keep, isn't it? Via Angry in the Great White North.

I saw this picture (a smaller version) when it first came out, and didn't really notice the tattoo. That is one classy genleman, isn't it? Sort of sums up the whole election.

When PR companies attack

The Globe & Mail has endorsed (albeit with a great deal of apprehension) the Conservatives.

When the Liberal PR firm comes out in favor of turfing the Liberals, you know there's something big happening.

Eight is what I got

MacDonald's gets the boot - Congrats to this Italian town, not for giving Mickie D's the heave-ho but for doing it the right way. Rather than toss bricks through the window while the place is full like the anti-globalisation anarchists do it, they simply made a different (and better) choice. Let this be a lesson to all - MacDonald's only stays where there is the desire for it. If no one went in, it wouldn't be popular - that's why it's everywhere. People like it.

Prime Minister Paul Martin - Against the Charter - He doesn't think that the notwithstanding clause is a useful safeguard (section 33) , and he is against the presumption of innocence (section 11(d)). His argument is that Stephen Harper will destroy the Charter?!?

Many Canadians support private health care just like Jack Layton - Many Canadians have taken advantage of private health care without knowing it, and the nation has not crumbled to the ground. The problem is that no one understands private health care, and no one knows what it means. Why? Because the Liberals and New Democrats have made it an ideology-fueled debate. Ideology-fueled it will remain unless a Conservative government is brought into power.

Let the girl ride the damned Segway - Is there even a question here? If you want to ban them for the general public, go ahead - but to not allow a disabled person to be mobile is wrong. There should be very little debate on this one; change the laws, get it done.

The debate on Same-Sex Marriage has just been reframed - Legalize polygamy, eh? Yeah, I don't see this one upsetting anybody.

Mess gets his number up in lights - One of the greatest ever gets his number raised to the rafters. It boggles the mind to think about who actually played on that Oilers team . . . Peter Pocklington, what did you do?

Want to know what kind of bubble I live in? - I haven't seen ONE of the top 10 films of 2005, and I went to 25-30 movies. Not a single one of these movies made it to Korea this year. How depressing is that?

Why is this taking so long; are we re-inventing the wheel here? - As someone who has spent waaay too much time in a airplane over the last year, I am definitely looking forward to internet and TV connections becoming standard. Bring on the technology, and damn the plane-plunging-into-the-dark-ocean consequences!

Liberal 'math'

If you cruise on over to the Liberal.ca site, you will find a handy dandy little Conservative Program caluclator which seems to indicate that a Tory government will place the country squarely in deficit. Their figures are based on the Liberal projection of the budget over the next 5 years under the Tory spending plans.

Now, given the Liberal record for estimating their own budget costs and the resultant surplus over the last 8 years, does anyone really think their math skills can be trusted?

They're estimating that the Tories will turn an 18 billion dollar surplus into a 14.5 billion dollar deficit (over 5 years).

2004-2005 Budget analysis - Estimated 3.0 billion surplus, Actually 1.5 billion surplus (we call this one an anomaly)
2003-2004 Budget analysis - Estimated 1.9 billion surplus, Actually 9.1 billion surplus
2002-2003 Budget analysis - Estimated 3.0 billion surplus, Actually 7.0 billion surplus
2001-2002 Budget analysis - Estimated 1.5 billion surplus, Actually 8.9 billion surplus
2000-2001 Budget analysis - Estimated 11.9 billion surplus, Actually 17.1 billion surplus

Now, I only went 5 years back because after that the comparison gets harder for a non-economically-inclined individual like myself, plus I have a job and a girlfriend and I am not about to sacrifice either for the sake of a blog. From the numbers, however, it seems like whenever the Grits try to predict how the economy and government revenues will look more than a few months down the road, they are consistenly off-base. They seem to have a tendency to underestimate the budget surplus by anywhere from 45 to 375% (2004-2005 being an anomaly).

Based on the Grit track record, I will hypothesize that the Tory spending plan will be several trillions of dollars in surplus at the end of 5 years. We should be able to buy Mars.

UPDATE: Blue Blogging Soapbox has the same calculator with the Conference Board of Canada surplus projections included, and the number comes out much differently - a 15 billion dollar surplus after 5 years. So it turns out the Liberals were close . . . they just put a minus sign (deficit) where they should have put a plus (surplus).

Amazing how those little details can change things, eh?

It's not the Globe & Mail, but . . .

. . . when the Toronto Star is abandoning the LIberals and chastising their leader, you know the campaign is going baaaad.

Good read.

Care of Ezra Levant over at the Western Standard

The Liberal Red Book. Oooh, first person to find the promise to eliminate federal usage of the Notwithstanding clause, you win a prize.

Hmmmm . . .

The Mike Douglas story - A trip rundown in one-part

He arrived on the bus eating Korean cornflakes from the bag, and left . . . on another bus. Not eating.

The in-between is the best part though.

So, after reluctantly returning to the Land Of The Morning Calm(tm) at the end of November, I was blessed with a visit from the man, the myth and the legend, Mike Douglas. Choosing to spend a glorious 3 week vacation from the rigours of merging and acquiring things in Asia, Mike became unique among my friends/family by actually taking advantage of having an excuse to visit the Far East (I'm looking at you Mum and Dad).

The trip started by leaving him alone to tool around by himself while I worked - unfortunately my boss is stingy with vacation days, and the fact that I had just finished a 2 week out-of-country vacation only 4 days earlier probably didn't help me when I asked for the time off. I did introduce him to the glories of Korean food and the gimbap shop, which seemed to make him happy after a week of eating what was brought to him. The gimbap shop is a glory - for 10 bucks the two of us ate the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat back home, which is pretty impressive if you know the two of us. He also got to experience the Norae-bang (a Korean karaoke singing room) and he sang a beautiful duet with Alvil, the new guy, to the tune of "I did it my way". We brought him out to a DVD room for a quiet night, during which he fell asleep; he was either unimpressed with the Korea (-language) war epic 'Taegukki', or he was absolutely taken aback by how Korea-tastic his experience had been to that point.

I'm saying more from column A than column B.

When I finally managed to get a day off, he and I headed to Busan to see what that wonderful city has to offer - we climbed up 3kms to Beomosa Temple, and found the UN War cemetery while discovering the greatest snack ever - hard-boiled eggs coated with a slightly sweet bread (you actually can't even understand how wonderful these things are - we each got 3 for 2 bucks, and the girl tossed in a cold canned coffee for being waygukin). We also witnessed a man making the single greatest purchase of his life, when he purchased a pair of gloves on the subway and proceeded to revel in this purchase for about 15 minutews, with Mike and I watching intently. We explored the cemetery on Saturday with Chrissy, wandered through the market in Nampo-dong, and smelled the sights in Jagalchi Fish Market. We even experienced the (not) rare joy of Korean propaganda while touring the Busan museum dedicated to the evil Japanese and their nasty modernising and infrastructure-developing ways (the sarcasm walking through there was thick).

On the Saturday night we grabbed rooms in a love motel and went to the University district to hit up Foxy nightclub, where Mike managed to a) pick up two Korean women at one time, one of whom I believe was a med school student (way to score a doctor dude), b) handle a beatdown from a Korean gentleman who was unimpressed with Mike's desire to breathe the air surrounding his flailing drunk-dancing space, and c) watch Alvil dance like no one has ever danced before (an event that culminated in Alvil being kicked in the groin by an angry gentleman whose girlfriend Alvil had shimmied up to). Mandu afterwards sealed the deal.

And so the next day, after wandering through the market again in search of non-crappy Korean trinket/souvenirs (of which there are none), we headed back to Changwon and grabbed a bite before heading back to the bus station. Mike headed off into the polluted, not-really-starry night on a voyage to Japan, and I went home to cry myself to sleep, pondering what might have been between myself and Mike had I been man enough to tell him I loved him . . .

Sorry, that's a blog post for another day. Forget I wrote that. Pretend it doesn't it exist.

So other than hearing every whine and complaint that Chrissy and I could muster, I think Mike had a good time - he can leave a comment if I've misrepresented anything here, or if he actually didn't enjoy himself. I suppose we complained so much simply because it was nice to talk English to a new person; either way, my apologies Mike for talking your ear off. I promise when I get back I will fill our time spent together leaving uncomfortable silences or whispering sweet nothings in . . . .

Oh yeah. Different post. My bad.

Stuff not related to the election

I may have mentioned some stuff about the election in another post today, so I won't bother to link to any of the articles out there about the debate. I may avoid election stuff altogether. Maybe.

He still has supporters? - Hwang Woo-Suk, you silly silly man. Did you really think you'd get away with faking scientific research? Especially stem cell research?

Preserving your body for the viewing pleasure of others - Very interesting article that Chrissy pointed me to. While I would probably not choose to have my body 'plastinated' for other people's entertainemnt, it's an interesting concept. Why people would have moral problems with this is odd - it's just donating your body to science, with a twist.

Nope, no siree, no conflict of interest there - I suppose it's simply coincidence that a high-ranking political journalist has just taken a high-ranking government job in the government she was covering. Ignore all that smoke - there's no fire here at all. None. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Places I can't afford to get to from Korea - But will darn sure be putting them on my list for the upcoming winters. Turks & Caicos, I've got my eye on you - why haven't these islands become a part of Canada? Mr. Mulroney had the right idea!

Micrososft . . . leading the way for angry dictators and totalitarian governments everywhere - Time for a golf clap. Microsoft has managed to highlight once again what is wrong with human nature. "We need more money - let's expand to China." "What about our principles?" "What principles?!"

" . . . works such as "A Day Without Whores" and "Big Butt Road Trip" won fulsome praise." - Award season is starting to get out of hand. Congrats to Jenna Jameson!

Harper wins the debate - Alright, I lied. So sue me.

Who do you think the Globe & Mail wants to win? or Ladies and Gentlemen, that's what I call spin - Yeah, good try guys. The Liberal war room asked me to pass along the message that the 'cheque' is in the 'mail'.

EKOS interests

Nealenews.com is reporting a developing poll story that has the Tories are polling at 43% vs. 29% for the Liberals.

Interesting . . .

The Notwithstanding clause

My final word (for now) on the debate and on the notwithstanding clause threat from M. Martin - I missed the exchange because Korean internet supremacy is not all that it has been reported to be, so I'm forced to go on what CPAC is describing took place - but the threat to revoke the notwithstanding clause is silly.

M. Martin has finally admitted that he's not up to the task of governing the country. Rather than run government the way a Prime Minister is supposed to, M. Martin has decided that the Supreme Court is more fit for the job. Eliminating federal usage of the clause means that the Supreme Court decides the law, and the people who are actually elected by the citizens of Canada are reduced to nothing more than advisors.

Does this mean that Mr. Martin only respects the parts of the Charter and the Constitution that he agrees with? The override powers were included specifically to ensure that the Judiciary doesn't have the final word on the law of the land - does M. Martin think that's a bad idea?

Debate hoo-hahs

We came into Confederation as a whole. - Gilles Duceppe

I don't know Mr. Duceppe - maybe your map of Canada in 1867 looks different from mine . . . but you sure didn't come into Confederation with what you think you did.

Ooooh . . . debate-tastic

Live-blogging note - M. Prime Minister - education is a provincial jurisdiction - you can't get things right at the Federal level, stop promising to fix education on the provincial level.

EDIT 1 - Stephen Harper keeps saying 'the fact of the matter', so I have to support him. People who knew me in University will understand.

EDIT 2 - Paul Martin "campaigns like an NDP, governs like a Tory" - Gilles Duceppe. Nice line. There have been a few in the last few minutes.

EDIT 3 - The Liberal plan for education is kind of hackneyed, isn't it? Half in the first year, half in the last? And once again, isn't education a provincial thing?

Notorious Nine

Two weeks left, two debates to go - One thinks that there might be a little bit riding on tonight and tomorrow night. Anyone else hoping for a knock-out punch? Anyone really think it could happen? Didn't think so. But the poll numbers from CTV look nice, don't they (37% CPC, 29% LPC)?

Do they even have a plan? - And if they do, are they planning on releasing it with such little time left that it can't be examined? Is that the Liberal strategy right now? Because at this point they're basically just making it up as they go along.

You can't even count! - Where in the world do the Liberals get off telling ANYONE that their numbers are wrong? These are the folks who have misjudged the budget numbers every year for a DECADE!

It amazes me that this is news - But apparently people still don't realise that the world is changing. Pierre Bourque put it best last week on his site - Newsflash to the traditional media, the world is changing. Get on board.

See India choose genders; see India decline - Yeah, skewing your population towards one gender over another is never a bad idea. I mean, a society with more men than women - what could go wrong?

Stick it in my dog, ok . . . - But does anyone really feel comfortable with computer chips being implanted into them? I understand the early-adopters like to be ahead of the trend, but really, I can't see this being a trend. Unless of course the trend is lead by a guy with a government-issued rifle.

Turnabout is fair play - Seriously though, what are the odds that the mouse you've condemned to death by fire would run back into your house and burn the whole place down?

Tsk, tsk, tsk Landslide Annie - Stephen Taylor takes a good look at the Liberal from Alberta (the only Liberal from Alberta) and finds a few things apparently amiss from the last campaign. Seriously, is there anything Stephen Taylor doesn't do? Is there a symbol I can flash in the sky when I need him to come solve crime for me?

Wow do I feel old - How to tell when Boomers have lost control of the media? I swear, the first time I see a Snoop lyric being used in a newspaper headline, I'm going to cry into my bran flakes and prunes.

The Weekend One

Man, I've got 5 seasons of West Wing DVD's - What the heck am I supposed to do with them now?

I'll be honest, I'm going to be a happy camper when physical media is done away with and everything gets beamed into my iPod video computer dealie.

The best part of the whole article was at the very end, where the author states that both of the new technologies might not even be the one that sticks. Not only are there two competeing formats out there, but you might have a 0 in 2 chance of picking the right one!

Don't you love being a consumer?

The excellent eight

Ladies and Gentlemen, your winners, and STILL World Champions . . . - Oh Canada indeed.

Now we should feel sorry for her - I don't agree with the death threats . . . but the public ridicule this woman is getting is what she deserves. If the judge says the disgrace is punishment enough, then that's what she gets. She got a lot more than she bargained for, I'm sure.

Scandal scandal scandal - And not the ones you already know about. It's amazing how much you find when you stop keeping your eyes closed and start looking, eh Mainstream media?

How not to build a nation - How do insurgents figure this is going to end? Do they believe there's an end-game scenario that doesn't involve continued bloodshed? Or is that all they really want?

Thank goodness the Liberals will protect us with a handgun ban - Because obviously criminalizing the ownership of legal guns has worked so far. I mean, how could kids EVER get their hands on AK-47's with a federal gun regis . . . . never mind.

Yeah, people are going to mistake the Globe&Mail as a Conservative publication - This guy is worried that G&M headlines are helping the Tories in their ads. I can understand why he's worried - the PMO wll be very angry when they realise their defacto public relations firm is helping the enemy.

Gun shots, rang out like a bell - A few weeks ago I remarked that I had really enjoyed Toronto the last time I was there, and could definitely see myself living there. Not anymore. The media has done a fine job of scaring me (and most other Canadians), eh?

There are two types of people in this world: the dead, and those who have not yet met Vin Diesel. - Mike Douglas and Chris Lowe, you are my heros. "Vin Diesel can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night."

Today's Top Ten

A 9 hour award show I'd watch - Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscars? For the first time in my life, I am actually planning to watch the show. And I'm actually looking forward to it.

Bad news for the Isreali/Palestinian peace process - Remember that article I linked to about Palestinians voting Hamas or Fatah? It may not matter now. Can you say power vacuum?

Federal inmates won't be voting for him - And that makes me support him and his party even more in this election. A government that will get tough on crime is A-ok in my books; all the better that it would be a Tory government that did it. Note to the PM - this is how you go about tackling the gun problem WITHOUT ignoring the Charter.

Time to ride coattails - Mr. Layton has been getting zero press lately, which means only one thing - time to attack the front-runner. By doing this, he may end up driving support away from his own party and into the hands of the Liberals. Brilliant strategy, Mr. Leader of the last-place team (Green's don't count until they elect someone).

Sticking to the message: America bad!!! - America-bashing seems to be a Grit election favourite. Marc Garneau compares Quebec separation to the war in Iraq, and a nation wonders what the heck he's going on about.

Dunh, dunh, dunh . . . another one bites the dust - 3-1 Ottawa win over the Caps. 59 points. 1st in the league. Not bad heading into the halfway point in the season. This Sens fan is happy. It only gets better when Alfie comes back.

You mean antibiotics DON'T cure the common cold? - When you go to the hospital here in Changwon, they give you a needle. No one knows what it's for. No one can tell you what it is. But everyone swears that it makes you better. I think it's sugar water. So the news that hospitals in SK are over-prescribing antibiotics is not surprising.

Yeah, no, Google's not a threat - Methinks Mr. Gates is under-estimating his competition just a touch. Seeing as Microsoft makes software, runs email, performs searches. Like Google does. Whereas IBM builds things.

Disaster tourism is one sick idea - Seriously, do people need to be desensitized to everything? Why do you need to see a scene of devastation first-hand? Do you want to take pictures? Is the crap you can find on the internet not graphic enough for you?

Unfortunately not a Darwin award candidate - "Perhaps, our mothers never explained to us that it was not a good idea to play with handguns whilst using the restroom. But then again, maybe that was supposed to be a given." Ya think?

EDIT: Tack on #11 - How'd I miss this one?

What the heck is wrong with people? - Memo to the yutzes who booed the American Junior hockey team during the World Junior's: they are 17, 18 and 19 year old kids. My guess is they were not the authors of the current US policy on war in Iraq. Also, they weren't old enough to vote for George W. Bush. So even if it was ok to boo Americans for being from America (and it's not), these probably aren't the Americans you want to boo. Seeing as they're kids. You know, and really had nothing to do with it.

A snip and a cut . . . then back to academy!

So I had a kid come into today, walking a little funny. I dismissed it - kids are weird, maybe he was making a joke.

I start class, do my usual thing - "What is today?" "Today is Thursday . . . " Then I go around the class, asking the usual questions to each child; how are you today, what did you do, that sort of thing. Then I come to Tom. Tom's the boy who was walking kind of funny.

The conversation went as follows:

Me: "How are you today, Tom?"
Tom: "Nasogood." (The kids aren't big on enunciation)
Me: "Really? Why?"
Tom: "Uhh, um, gussuh, cutuh."

This is a really low level class, and so their vocabulary is limited. Everyone starts to help him out, with some good natured laughing at Tom. I'm trying to figure out what the heck 'gussuh' means, when one of the boys starts pointing at his crotch.

Boy: "Tomuh, gussuh, cutuh! Hahahaha!"
Tom: "Uh-huh."

Oh my dear. This boy had his private male part cut! But how?!

Me: "Ack! Tom, you see Korean teacher, go to byeongwon?" (byeongwon is hospital in Korean)
Tom: "Ani, ani (no, no). Today, morning, byeongwon."

What?! You already went to the hospital? Why in the blue hell are you here then?

Tom: "Doctuh cut. Gussuh cutuh." (He pronounced cut right! The first time, anyway)

Oh. My. God.

This kid had a circumcision done this morning, and his parents made him come to school this afternoon. Rather than allow the boy to rest A DAY, they made him drag his unable-to-walk-properly-because-of-the-pain butt to English academy, so he could not learn anything as he tried to stop from crying out from the pain. I know that my hagwon is expensive, but . . .

This job is great for stories.

When incumbent governments attack

Here's my issue with incumbent governments in Canadian election campaigns - when they start promising to cut this and spend here and make this a priority, I have to wonder what the heck they did with their time in government.

Take this for instance . . . the Paul Martin Liberals have pledged to introduce 7 billion in tuition relief if elected. Rather than focusing on specifics, I'd rather ask this question - why didn't the Liberals ever do something like this while in government? In the last 12 years they've had majorities for 10 and a minority for 2 (which would have been receptive to this idea with the NDP holding the balance of power). They've been running a revenue surplus for almost a decade. Why is this idea just coming up now?

It's not as if the Liberals have been making major policy changes since M. Martin took power. You can't really argue they've been too busy with areas of governance - unless you consider spinning one scandal after another the most important role for a government. Aside from throwing more money at health care without a concrete plan, what has the Liberal government done since M. Chretien left office?!

The story also points out his pledge to scrap the immigrant landing fee entirely . . . are they making new stuff up everytime the campaign plane is stalled? In previous campaigns the Liberals always released a 'Red Book' - their policy plans that they hoped to set in motion if(/when) elected. Of course, they didn't do that in 2004, and aren't doing it now in 2006 . . . even though it was Paul Martin who authored the things, and he's now the PM.

Do you think it has anything to do with a) the fact that they can't seem to keep the promises they make (GST, democratic reform), and b) with no specific platform they can make up policy on the fly?

It appears that b) is winning right now.

Daily (three-quarter-)dozen

He's not meeting with the RCMP! - But he did. But he's not going to. But he did! But he's not going to! And he didn't do anything wrong!

I love the smell of desperation in the morning - My hometown paper gets it right again.

I smell some pork-barrelling coming - Belly-up to the trough kids. If the Prime Minister is yakking about how Mr. Harper will lead the country astray, that can mean only one thing - he's about to show us his plan for Canada's future. Spend, spend, spend, steal, steal, spend!

The Palestinian choice - Do you want many more years of Isreali occupation, followed by suicide bombings, followed by occupation, followed by suicide bombings, followed by . . . . You do? Vote Hamas! Otherwise, go with Fatah and work towards a future with less killing.

Lunch-bucket hockey - So who do we play in the Finals? The Yanks or the Russkies? The Ruskkies? Does it matter? Bring the gold home boys.

The can't-shoot-straight-gang - Would anyone put up with a bridge-building company that had to go and fix the big bridge they built, every month or so, so that the whole thing didn't fall in? Or what about a car whose steering fails unless you take it in once a month so they can replace a part? Why do we put up with this from Microsoft?

Yeah, this plan is really working well, eh? - South Korea sends the North coal. It is (apparently) a humanitarian exploit, as chances are the North isn't paying for it. But it turns out the coal is really going to the Kaesong industrial park, where Southern companies are taking advantage of the cheapest of the cheap labour. Way to exploit your poorer, close-to-death northern brothers. Keep propping up that glorious Kim regime.

Sure we screwed up, but let's stop talking about it - So the Korea Times thinks Science magazine should share the blame with Hwang Woo-Suk for the stem cell fiasco? I'm not about to absolve Science of blame, but really, is this the question South Korean media should be debating right now? Or should they rather be casting a light on the deification process that took place in their very pages?

Way to go Toronto Star! - Good to know plagiarism is alive and well north of the border.

Daily (half-)dozen

The Top 5 Conservative priorities of the government if the Tories form it - As opposed to the 56 areas that M. Martin describes as top priorities. It sort of makes sense to narrow the list a touch, don't ya think?

- Wow . . . I can't believe a) that someone asked this question, or b) that Canada.com chose to run a top-of-the-page story about it. I can't say I ever really cared about smell as a part of the sexual behaviour of humans.

Why is the New NHL better than the old? - Because it is. Because the small market teams have a chance. Because the goalies look less like padded dump trucks and more like padded human beings. Because shoot-outs in the regular season are better than feeling like you just kissed your sister after a tie.

Everybody's "I wish I could, but why waste my vote" choice to form government - . . . releases it's platform. And 95% of voters ignore them.

They're not kidding - when they call it the 'World in Brief' section, are they?

Not a hate crime? - Yeah, I can see how you might not be sure if swastikas on a sign are a hate crime.

Political cops

So now the PM is running around saying the investigation into the Income Trust leak is the result of political maneouvering by the Opposition and the RCMP?!

The gall of M. Martin and the Liberals is staggering. The truth is that the Liberals should have properly investigated this whole matter when it came to light in the first place. Trying to hide behind the 'routine speculative spikes' cover is sad, and shows that the man who wanted to 'clean-up government' actually couldn't care less about cleaning it up; he just wants to hold onto the power he's clamoured after for decades.

Side-note to the Prime Minister: you can't claim to believe in defending the Charter if you're going to include a 'reverse-onus' clause in your gun legislation.

Hey - at least the bill was good for a sound-bite . . . but was it even useful as that?

Back from Taipei, with the pictures to prove it

Prove that I actually went, that is. Pictures from mine and Chrissy's Taipei trip are here; there's also an album from the Christmas festivities, although I'm really only expecting my family to look at those . . .

The links are also in the picture section on the left-hand toolbar, for those people who want to look at them again later. Again, probably only my parents.

Taipei was incredible, and I highly suggest that if you have the opportunity, take it. From hot springs to food, memorials and museums to New Year's festivities, the whole trip was fantastic from start to finish. We had the benefit of a friend of my uncle's who showed us around and was a fantastic host; Rick Chang, you are my hero. If you're reading this, many thanks again.